The following is a statement released today by Morgan Stanley CEO Phil Purcell.
(The comments were part of a worldwide broadcast to employees.)
Good Morning, it’s my duty to report on events of yesterday. All of us had an awful experience caused by the terrorists affecting many of our colleagues. We thought it best to give everybody an update with all of the facts as we know them at this hour.
We had about 2,500 people in Two World Trade Center and 1,000 people in Five World Trade Center. Miraculously, it appears the vast majority got out safely. We have some missing people we are looking for. We have all efforts trying to track down everyone we know who worked in the building. We don’t have final reports, but in most cases, as we have called, we have a very high percentage of employees who got of [sic] the building safely. The reason is that they started evacuating Two World Trade Center immediately upon hearing about the terrorist attack on One World Trade Center.
The plane hit our top floors in Two World Trade Center, but the people had already started to evacuate. On the employee side, that is our primary concern today, and all of us are focused on it, as we were all day yesterday. It is not a good story, but we think it is going to be much less bad than it appeared during the day yesterday--and what you would have thought looking at the pictures. We have a lot of stories of courage and a lot of stories of compassion, and we are going to be fine.
On the client side, I think it is extremely important that everyone get in touch with their clients. The Firm is in great shape. All of our systems are working. The exchanges, as you know, are closed. What the clients need is all of you calling and giving them reassurance. This country is very, very strong. We are doing all of the right things. The government and the regulators have pulled together to make this tragedy as minimal as possible, and the financial system is absolutely intact, totally strong.
What you need to do is get to your clients and reassure them that everything in this Firm is working, the financial system is working, and the global financial system is working. The country is strong, the financial system is very strong and resilient, and your company is extremely strong and very proud of its people.
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